When a priest who received complaints from one of his parishioners on his answering machine played the tape in church and asked his congregation “Should we send him to hell or to another parish?”

Angel Llavona, the parishioner who left the complaint, filed a defamation lawsuit Monday claiming the events at St. Thomas the Apostle Church caused him emotional distress that forced him to leave the Roman Catholic parish.

All this started about a year ago when Llavona left a message for the Rev. Luis Alfredo Rios complaining about a sermon he had given, the lawsuit said. “I attended Mass on Sunday and I have seen poor homilies, but yesterday broke all records,” Llavona said.

The lawsuit says Llavona, a high school teacher who helped out with the church’s religious education program, tried to meet with Rios. But when the meeting fell apart, he left another complaint on the priest’s answering machine.

Llavona said on Oct. 1, 2006, Rios played his voice messages for the congregation.

Then, according to the lawsuit, Rios said: “This is the person in charge of religious education here last year. That’s why it is no surprise to me we had the kind of religious education we had. That’s why we didn’t get altar boys. What should we do, should we send him to hell or to another parish?”

Llavona is seeking at least $50,000 in damages. “Rios impugned Llavona’s reputation as a teacher and as a good Catholic before his fellow parishioners,” the suit said.

Penny Wiegert, a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford, said Rios was at a retreat Wednesday and unavailable for comment.

The diocese is also named as a defendant. Wiegert said she couldn’t comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but released a diocese statement expressing hope for “a peaceful solution.”

A bit of funny math helped James Wilberg win the title of top liar. His winning quip: “There are three kinds of people in the world: Those who are good at math, and those who are not.”

Wilberg, of Franklin, beat 300 other liars from 14 states and three countries to become “World Champion Liar for 2006.” His prize is a parchment certificate from the Burlington Liars Club, which sponsors the annual contest.

The club got its start in 1929 when Burlington journalist Otis Hulett and Manuel Hahn fabricated a news story about a lying contest between the Burlington police and fire departments in which the winner the police chief, who denied ever telling a lie.

Hulett closed the club in 1979, and the Burlington Area Chamber of Commerce revived it the next year.

Six other submissions received honorable mention this year:

_ Garth Seehawer of Amberg: “He made the grandkids a telephone of two tin cans and a string. They thought it was great at first, but they threw it away after the 10th or 11th telemarketing call.”

_ Thomas Binder of Sheboygan: “There were so many political yard signs up during the last election, he accidentally voted for Shorewest Realtors.”

_ Rick Schaaf of Walhalla, N.D.: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. But if you grab it by its ears and hold its snout in the bucket long enough, it will either drink or learn to breath through its eyes.”

_ Bruce Zonow of Wisconsin Rapids: “The winter in northern Wisconsin was so severe last year that I was able to sublet the basement of my ice fishing shanty.”

_ Ellen Everts of New London: “Her friend is so cheap that when she wakes up in the morning, she looks under the bed to see if she lost any sleep.”

_ Jim Blazek of Racine: “My wife had so many magnets attached to the refrigerator during the winter months, causing it to run backwards. We now use it for a heating appliance.”

Villagers in a remote eastern India village protested after police arrived to arrest a three-month-old boy for robbery.

The boys name was subsequently dropped from a list of those accused of robbing bus passengers last week. Well yeah, the kid can’t even walk, how’s he going to rob bus passengers? An investigation is being conducted to figure out how this happened.

A police officer, Kumar, said the boy may have been named by the complainant “with a malicious intent”. Who on earth would have malicious intent against a 3 month old - more likely I believe, it was a prank.